<p>I understand that the tuition we paid for using money withdrawn from a 529 isn’t qualified for a hope credit or a lifetime learning credit, because that’s money that was earning tax-free. Also I can see from starting in on TurboTax that it doesn’t make any difference–our income last year was too low for us to owe tax, so we wouldn’t get a credit anyway. So my question is, do I still fill in the info about the 1098-T? even if we won’t claim a credit?</p>
<p>The student needs to enter the information from the 1098T on their tax return if they are required to do one. If he/she received scholarships/grants in excess of tuition and fees then those would be taxable and would have to be reported (by the student, not by parents).</p>
<p>The good news is that next year part (up to $1000) of the new education tax credit (replaces/expands the hope credit) will be refundable which means that you may get a ‘refund’ even if you have no tax liability.</p>